Sony Unveils the First Look at Andrew Garfield in the New Spider-Man Costume

Here’s the new costume for the rebooted Spider-Man franchise, minus the mask which will surely be saved for a later grab for attention. But hey, so far so good. I’m liking pretty much everything about this fresh start, especially since I kind of hate Raimi’s trilogy (though I only even saw the first two). I’m digging Garfield’s better physique and the costume’s lack of padding and fake muscles, both big improvements over Tobey Maguire and the costume had had to wear. Perhaps most exciting, those just might be artificial web shooters that can be glimpsed on his wrists. In my mind, it’s just not Peter Parker without the science genius aspect, so here’s hoping that’s what those are.

The new film is being directed by Marc Webb, previously of (500) Days of Summer, a movie I didn’t love but for reasons that had to do entirely on the script and Zooey Deschanel, not Webb’s direction. Script is by James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, yes!) and Alvin Sargent (the last two Spider-Man movies, meh). Andrew Garfield (The Social Network, Never Let Me Go) stars as Peter Parker and Spider-Man, with Emma Stone (Easy A) as the female lead Gwen Stacy. Rhys Ifans is playing Dr. Curt Connors aka The Lizard. Irrfan Khan (Slumdog Millionaire) plays Van Adder, another villainous role, who in the comics is a test subject of Norman Osborn’s and becomes Proto-Goblin but that may not be . Sally Fields is Aunt May while Martin Sheen will be Uncle Ben. Denis Leary plays police captain George Stacy, Gwen’s father. Annie Parisse plays Van Adder’s wife. Chris Zylka has the role of Flash Thompson. Campbell Scott and Julianne Nicholson will appear as Peter’s parents, presumably in flashback.

I was reluctant about getting excited for this new run of movies since the last one disappointed me so much, but here I go again. The simply titled Spider-Man is set for release on July 3, 2012.